Scratch Build of Gresley A4 Class "Union of South Africa"

[albergman]

On 7/31/2020 at 2:48 PM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Fantastic! What a pair!

 

A ‘Merchant Navy’ class loco next no doubt? 😀

Thanks Steve ... glad you like them.   Merchant Navy???   What what??  I grew up (40's and 50's) only seeing the LNER locomotives and kids of that era probably saw little of the other 3 main lines unless they lived near where other companies passed.   We didn't travel much in those days with the war going on and Dad away for years.   As a result I actually never knew there was anything BUT LNER till much later in life and I've just never found any other company's engines as attractive as Gresley's designs.   Don't hate me ... that's just me.

 

Regardless ... there'll be no more engines from me.   Already starting to think about my next car.

 

I see there's been very little activity in your loco shed for a while.   Hope all that motion hasn't overwhelmed you.   It is daunting and I agree that you should keep it down to as few pieces as possible.   The worst part about making it all is that when you've got it all figured out and fitted together ... you have to go and make the other side!!

 

 

 

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

55 minutes ago, albergman said:

 I've just never found any other company's engines as attractive as Gresley's designs.   Don't hate me ... that's just me.

 

Regardless ... there'll be no more engines from me.   Already starting to think about my next car.

 

 

I anticipated that answer! I know you are a northerner through and through! 😀

 

Looking forward to the next one!

 

Baby Bandsaw seems to have run out of steam for now. If we could just get some red paint on it I think she would get re-energised.

[albergman]

Still here and getting the odd day trying to finish up both engines.   Went backwards quite a bit on Scotsman once again as I decided I could do better.   Bane of my (model-making) life.

 

Anyway I got a piece of wood cut to size, edged and shellacked to make my base for Union of South Africa.   Cut a couple dozen sleepers and glued them down then tackled the buffers I wanted at one end.   As with my Scotsman I wanted to have the engine sitting on a siding "on standby", ready to go if there was an engine failure nearby ... I read that the LNER used to do that.    The buffers I wanted were to be ancient, made of heavy timbers and re-enforced with heavy steel plate and I was able to find suitable metal in my stash ... from an old dismantled printer.   Some round headed tacks served nicely as heavy bolts.   Buffers were turned on my lathe from aluminium rod.

 

My rails are new stock from a local shop and I believe they are Lionel (G gauge?) but seem appropriate scale for my engine.

 

 

 

I now had nice shiny plate steel on my buffers and I wanted to weather them ... something I've never done and didn't want to learn.   I see Johndon (in this section) has just posted a rusting exercise and is obviously skilled at it ... not me.    Instead I found some interesting YouTube tutorials on how to rust steel quickly using vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and salt ... all of which I had.    I had to scuff the (anodised?) surface finish off the steel and likewise off the rails but my Dremel made quick work of that.   I read another tip that the process works even better if the metal is pre-heated so I ran a micro-torch over it then quickly sprayed a mist of the formula.   In seconds rust started to appear!   I repeated the heat/spray process several times and each one made deeper rust.   

 

I know this will have limited application for most modellers as steel is the only thing this works on but maybe tuck it away for reference.

 

So here's my rusty old buffers.   I'm still waiting for an order of ballast to arrive and that will tidy up the scene.

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Frank